Traditions of honoring the bear in the Yakut "kurum" celebration

Fedorov Sviatoslav Igorevich ORCID: 0000-0002-8610-3689 Junior Scientific Associate, Department of History and Arctic Studies, The Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Senior Lecturer, Department of World and Russian History, Ethnology and Archaeology, Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Petrovsky str., 1 fedorov.si@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Semenov Anatoly Artemovich ORCID: 0000-0002-3186-4739 Postgraduate student, Department of World, National History, Ethnology and Archaeology, M.K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University 677000, Russia, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, ul. Belinsky, 58, office 608 semenovt9898@gmail.com

The cult of veneration of the bear was quite common among the peoples living on the territory of modern Yakutia. According to ethnographic and folklore data, it can be stated that the image of the bear was widely spread directly in the hunting culture, where it appears in the image of the owner of the taiga, the mention of which is of a sacred nature. This is especially clearly traced, according to ethnographic information, in the Vilyui region.

Currently, the Vilyuysky group of districts (uluses) includes: Vilyuysky, Verkhnevilyuysky, Nyurbinsky, Suntarsky districts. They are located along the Vilyu River, where the taiga zone prevails. The main population is Yakuts and a small proportion falls on other peoples: Evens, Evenks, etc. Most of the inhabitants are engaged in cattle breeding (horse and cattle) and hunting small and large game (hare, squirrel, elk, deer, bear).

Unlike their neighbors, reindeer herders and hunters of the Evenks, the Yakuts in the past and now have a respectful "fear" and respect for the bear and treat it very respectfully, which is expressed, for example, in avoiding the common word "ese" (yak.) - bear. It is replaced by the allegorical and more respectful name "tyataagi" (yak.), which means "the one who lives in the forest" ^{[1, p. 47]}. The scarier the forest animal was, the more it was respected, feared and given ritual honors and took a number of other measures to protect themselves and pets from attack. To do this, various amulets were used, for example: part of the skin of a mole, a gopher. 

R.K. Maak in his work "Vilyuysky district" described in detail the hunting customs associated with the bear among the Yakuts and Tunguses living in the Vilyuysky district. Of all the Siberian hunting tribes, he considered the Tungus the bravest: armed with a rifle and a palm tree, they often fought a bear alone. In this respect, the Yakuts represented the complete opposite of the Tungus. They hunted the bear only with the help of traps and in rare cases decided to kill in dens, entering into an open struggle no other than in a group of ten or twenty people. Both Yakuts and Tunguses paid great honors to the bear, however, they considered it a great sin not to eat meat to those who caught it. Therefore, most of the meat of the caught animal is eaten at the fishing site ^{[2, p. 108]}.

In the work of Yu.A. Sleptsov "The cult of the bear among the Evens of Yakutia and Kamchatka", similar rituals and holidays are celebrated. This indicates that the image of the bear is generally similar between Evenks, Evens and Yakuts. This is most likely due to some common living conditions and places of close contact with each other, especially in the north-east of Yakutia.  The article also notes that the bear has a special symbolic meaning for the Evens. He is considered a sacred animal, with which many legends, myths and legends are associated. The bear embodies strength, wisdom, courage and endurance, and is also an intermediary between people and the spiritual world. Bear hunting is accompanied by a number of rituals and rituals that are aimed at transforming the hunter and creating a harmonious connection between man and bear. Before hunting, special rituals are held in which hunters glorify and sacrifice to the bear, addressing him as a patron spirit. In addition, the Evens believe that the bear has healing properties. Its meat and other body parts are used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases. Bear fat is considered especially valuable and is used in medicines ^{[3, p. 147]}.

The article by A.I. Yakovlev and S.I. Fedorov "Transformation of the culture of life support among modern Yakuts (by the example of hunting)" provides almost similar examples of bear hunting among the Yakuts, with the exception of some details, for example, the installation of the idol of the patron of hunters and the owner of the taiga Baai Bayanai ^{[4, p. 84]}.

G. M. Vasilevich described in detail the bear festival and the ritual of burying the remains of a bear among the Evenks, who have preserved the archaic tradition of accompanying hunting, skinning carcasses, cooking dishes, cooking the head and the meal itself with crow cries. Everyone who lived nearby was invited to the meal. A pile of boiled meat was put in a large frying pan, and a boiled head on a dish. Boiled bear meat was strung on skewers and treated in turn. Before eating meat and thick fatty broth, they always shouted "ku-uk!", pretending that a raven eats meat, and not a person. During the burial of the remains of the bear, certain rules were observed, the bones were carefully stacked on talnik rods, then buried on the trunk of a larch tree, which was cut off from four sides, which was called "chuki". The bear's head was hung nearby and also called "chooks". This aerial burial was constructed on one or three hewn larch pillars ^{[5, p. 157]}.

The influence of the Evenk culture associated with the bear rite can be traced among the Vilyui Yakuts, both in general relation to the bear and the burial rite of his remains. R.K. Maak during his journey described a similar bear rite, largely identical to the Evenk rite and only differing in a number of details. Bear bones after the meal were carefully collected and stacked on high log cabins (kereh). Maak mentioned that such log cabins could very often be found in forests, where they were installed on three felled trees covered with small poles, bear bones carefully hidden by grass and bushes were placed on these poles. And bear skulls were not stacked on such log cabins, but remains in the form of a trophy near the yurt of the Yakut who killed the bear.  The hunter's annual prey was counted by the number of skulls, while the Evenks' skull was hung near the burial of a bear. Such log cabins were sacrificial gifts to the forest spirit, the patron saint of hunting "Bayanai" ^{[2, p. 108]}. Ya. I. Lindenau also points out when describing the hunting culture of the Yakuts that after the bear's prey, the head and bones are hung on a tree ^{[6, p. 103]}.

According to researchers ^{[7, p. 120]}, the bear is the most significant hunting trophy, during the extraction of which special sacred hunting conventions and rituals were observed. Conditionality can be called the attitude of hunters towards him. It was believed that the bear is connected with people and is endowed with the ability to know at a distance all thoughts, intentions and words expressed about him by anyone. Therefore, the Yakuts were afraid to think something bad about the bear. Even in those cases when he caused harm to people or cattle, no one dared to openly talk about what had happened. Fearing to betray their intentions, the hunters who pursued the bear used special conditional jargons: "Step on a crack" (haya5ay ukteetim) - means in this jargon "found a den"; "stopped", "fell asleep" (tohtoobut, utuibut) - so expressed when it was necessary to announce the fact of the bear's death, etc.

If the bear was in hibernation during the immediate roundup, then he was woken up and pronounced the following: "Grandpa, don't be angry with us for bothering you. Strangers are approaching you" or "Wake up, Grandpa, a black crow is approaching you!". This custom was based on the sincere belief that the bear's prey in a dream promises adverse consequences, namely that the hunter will suffer the same way, that is, the animal will attack him while the hunter is sleeping.

After getting the bear in the den, it was necessary to take out the carcass from there. To do this, as a rite of passage, the youngest hunters crawl into the bear's habitat, first tying themselves with a rope, in case the bear is still alive and poses a threat to the hunter being tested. The rite should include tying a strong rope around the bear's mouth to pull the carcass out of the den. After the carcass has been removed from the den, the subject must crawl back and remove the wool, straw and waste products. The den should be cleaned as much as possible, this is done in order for another bear to settle there, which hunters will find in the same way.

After the end of the main action, skinning began. In the past, it was accepted that when cutting hunters had to approach only from one side. In addition, before the first incision, it was necessary to shout in chorus "Huh! Huh! Huh! We are not people, we are black crows", or we made an incision by putting grass there, simultaneously saying: "Grandfather, we are mowing green grass!", or "Grandfather, there is a log here, don't hurt yourself by stepping over it!" ^{[7, p. 124]}. Then we moved on to direct use, in the description of which we will rely on our own field materials.

Judging by the collected materials, it is safe to say that the Vilyui Yakuts had a bear holiday, possibly borrowed from the Tunguska population, which was called "kurum". This holiday was not found in the Central regions of Yakutia. This can be explained by the fact that the Yakuts living in the Vilyui region had much more contacts with the Tunguska population. It is worth emphasizing that the term "kurum" in the Yakut language means "a festive table, a wedding feast" ^{[8, p. 1253]}. According to the informant, the last time such a holiday was held in 1976 in the Suntarsky district in the village of Tumul. Informant – Semenova Vitalina Ermolaevna (60 years old) She reported: "In the Suntar district in the village of Tumul in 1976, this holiday was celebrated. Local hunters killed a bear. We were invited to a long communal table, where the whole small village gathered, as well as guests from nearby villages. In the middle of the table there was a whole boiled bear's head, also at the feast there was boiled bear meat, which was consumed by stringing it on wooden skewers. While eating meat, people shouted "koch!" (imitated the cry of a raven). The broth was very fat and rich, the old people drank it with pleasure. And they ate meat from the head with their hands, without using a knife. After the feast, the bones were carefully collected in a bag and buried in the forest. The bear's paw was cut off and left to be used as a talisman against evil spirits, calling it "tappai" instead of "bappahai". After this incident, this holiday was no longer celebrated because of the ban on bear hunting. Perhaps somewhere in the remote taiga hunters celebrate themselves" ^[9].

The words of the second informant Afanasyeva Valeriana, born in 1959, indicate that in the Suntarsky district "kurum" was celebrated until the 90s of the XX century in a narrow circle, more often than the hunters themselves, less often with invited close friends and relatives. According to available information, the informant last visited the celebration in the late 1980s - early 1990s. far from the settlements, directly in the hunting zaimka. Here we can observe that everyone was no longer invited to the event, it was held secretly, in a confidential circle. The basic rules of holding and eating remained unchanged: it was impossible to eat meat with a knife or fork, exclusively with a spoon or with your hands. The whole cooked bear's head, called "khachyiba" or "harymny" in those parts, was also present. According to the second informant, in the 1970s, local hunters held this meal much more often, however, over time, the ritual meal came to naught. ^[10].

According to the information of the above-mentioned informant, in the area of Maldiagar there were ritual heads of bears suspended on a larch tree in the amount of about 20 copies. The heads were facing the sunrise. These trophies belonged to an avid hunter Yueryun, who died while hunting the hundredth bear ^[11]. It is worth noting that according to Yakut legends, a hunter who decides to prey on the hundredth bear will surely die from his paws, so many bear hunters stop at 99 prey, and some stop hunting altogether.

The process of bear hunting among Tunguses living in Yakutia does not differ much, this indicates that the Yakuts most likely borrowed the cult of bear worship from the local population. The Tunguses also assembled a detachment to hunt a bear, but unlike the Yakuts, they did not hunt a bear specifically, i.e. the Tunguses did not have an "SS" hunter specializing in a bear.  They hunted only if necessary (an attack on a herd, a person, approaching a camp). 

When they got a bear, they told the bear that Yakut or someone else killed him. On the ceremonial side, the Tunguses are more strict than the Yakuts, for example, the Tunguses did not eat bear meat so often and when they ate it, it was forbidden to eat meat for women and children. The bear festival (feast) was strictly a man's affair and was celebrated in a narrow circle of hunters. The above-mentioned Yakut bear festival "kurum" is borrowed from the Tunguska population and most likely the whole complex of honoring the bear was partly borrowed, this is indicated by some similarities in ritual, for example, imitation of the cry of a raven when killing or at a meal.

Thus, it can be assumed that the Tunguska population of the Vilyui district, which had a more developed bear cult, took part in the formation of the bear ritual "kurum" among the Vilyui Yakuts. In the Central and Northern regions of Yakutia, the Kurum holiday is not mentioned as a bear ritual, it has not spread, although the term itself is found in the Yakut lexicon and means a wedding feast. In the described areas, this ritual persisted until the 90s of the XX century, later after the prohibition and restriction of bear hunting, it began to disappear and there is no mention of it in surveys conducted among younger hunters. Although it is possible that modern hunters in the circle of relatives and friends continue to celebrate the holiday "Kurum", but only in a much more modified form.